But the Foreign Office said Thursday that "in the light of this week's attacks against civilians by the Syrian security forces, which we have condemned, the Foreign Secretary has decided that the presence of the Syrian ambassador at the royal wedding would be unacceptable and that he should not attend."

"Buckingham Palace shares the view of the Foreign Office that it is not considered appropriate for the Syrian Ambassador to attend the wedding," the spokesman added.

Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip

Following the royal wedding ceremony, Queen Elizabeth II – married to Prince Phillip – will host a reception for the couple at Buckingham Palace, with guests drawn from the wedding congregation.
(Chris Jackson / Getty Images)
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Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall

Prince Charles – married to Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall – will host a dinner and dancing for Prince William and Kate Middleton and their close friends in the evening, royal officials confirmed. He will be expected to provide the food and the wine and to make a heartfelt toast.
Of the bride, Camilla said, “Kate’s a lovely girl … We’re very lucky. I’m very much looking forward to the wedding.”
(Patricia De Melo Moreira / AFP - Getty Images)
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Princess Anne

Princess Anne is the only daughter of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip and is the only member of the British royal family to have competed in the Olympics, in equestrian events. Her daughter, Zara Phillips, will wed this summer.
(Julian Herbert / Getty Images)
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Prince Andrew, Duke of York

Prince Andrew is the third child of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip and the former husband of Sarah Ferguson, who was not invited to the royal wedding.
(Dan Kitwood / Getty Images)
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Prince Edward and Sophie Rhys-Jones, Countess of Wessex

Prince Edward is the fourth child of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip and is married to Sophie Rhys-Jones, Countess of Wessex, a former public relations manager.
(Chris Jackson / Getty Images)
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Zara Phillips and Mike Tindall

Zara Phillips, daughter of Princess Anne and her first husband, Mark Phillips, will wed the captain of England's rugby team, Mike Tindall, on July 30 in the Scottish capital, Edinburgh. Phillips was considered the rebel of the royal family as a teenager before following in her mother's footsteps to enjoy a successful horse riding career.
(Carl De Souza / AFP - Getty Images)
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Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie

Princess Beatrice and her sister Princess Eugenie are the daughters of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, the Duke and Duchess of York.
(Shaun Curry / AFP - Getty Images)
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Prince Harry and Chelsy Davy

Prince Harry has conducted an on-again, off-again relationship with law student Chelsy Yvonne Davy since 2004. Davy made headlines in 2009 when it was reported that she announced a split with Prince Harry on Facebook.
(Ben Stansall / Getty Images)
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Tom Parker Bowles

Tom Parker Bowles is the son of Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, and a well-known food writer and cookbook author. In 2005, he married Sara Buys, a fashion features editor, and their wedding was attended by Prince Charles, Prince Harry and Prince William.
(Ian Gavan / Getty Images)
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Charles, Earl Spencer

Charles Spencer, the ninth Earl Spencer, is the late Princess Diana's brother and an author and journalist. According to the U.K.’s Mirror, Prince William’s uncle will reportedly offer a royal wedding travel package for tourists at his Althorp estate, where Princess Diana is buried.
In February, Charles announced his engagement to a Canadian charity worker. The wedding, Spencer's third marriage, will take place just a few weeks after the royal wedding.
(David Rogers / Getty Images)
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Lady Sarah McCorquodale, Princess Diana's sister

Lady Sarah McCorquodale is an older sister of the late Princess Diana and was her unofficial lady-in-waiting. According to the London Evening Standard, Sarah will attend Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding wearing the diamond earrings that were the "something borrowed" worn by Diana at her wedding nearly 30 years ago.
(Peter Macdiarmid / Getty Images)
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Michael and Carole Middleton

Michael and Carole Middleton are the parents of Prince William's fiancee, Kate. The Middletons live in the village of Bucklebury in Berkshire, England, and run a successful mail order business.
(Stefan Rousseau / AFP - Getty Images)
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Syrian Ambassador Sami Khiyami

Syrian Ambassador Sami Khiyami, seen here with Queen Elizabeth in 2005, was originally invited to the royal wedding, but one day before the nuptials the UK Foreign Office withdrew the invite. Human rights groups had criticized the invitation following violent attacks on protesters by Syrian security forces.
(Afp / AFP - Getty Images)
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Bogoda Seelawimala

The Venerable Bogoda Seelawimala is head priest at London's Buddhist Vihara temple. Seelawimala has never met Prince William or Kate Middleton, and has been invited primarily to show the royal family and the British government's respect for Buddhist tradition.
(Sang Tan / AP)
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Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako

Crown Prince Naruhito is the first son of Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko of Japan. Princess Masako is his wife.
(Toru Yamanaka / AFP - Getty Images)
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Emirati Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahayan

Laura Lopes, Duchess of Cornwall's daughter

Laura Lopes is the daughter of Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, and manager of a London art gallery. In 2006, she married accountant Harry Marcus George Lopes and their wedding was attended by Kate Middleton.
(Stuart Wilson / Getty Images)
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Jonathan Sacks

Prime Minister David Cameron

David Cameron is the current prime minister of the United Kingdom and leader of the Conservative Party. Cameron assumed the office in 2010.
(Peter Macdiarmid / Getty Images)
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David Beckham and Victoria Beckham

Professional soccer player David Beckham and wife, former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham, became friends with Prince William and Kate Middleton in the wake of Prince William’s unsuccessful campaign to hold the 2018 World Cup in England. David Beckham was quoted in the Daily Mail as saying of the impending nuptials, “A royal wedding will be fantastic for the whole country.”
(Jon Kopaloff / FilmMagic)
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Sam Branson and Holly Branson

The children of Virgin Group chairman Sir Richard Branson, Sam and Holly Branson are longtime friends of Princes William and Harry. The Bransons’ private island, Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands, is rumored to be a possible honeymoon destination for the royal newlyweds-to-be.
(Ian Gavan / Getty Images)
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Sir Elton John

The beloved singer-songwriter and international pop star was a close friend of the late Princess Diana. Until recently, John was very coy about whether he was planning on attending the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.
(Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images)
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Video: Violent crackdown on Syrian protests continues

Closed captioning of: Violent crackdown on Syrian protests continues

>>>in
syria
tonight, the situation took another serious turn as president assad send tanks into the streets of a damascus suborn and 200 members of the ruling
baath party
quit their posts in protest. as you may know, this is tough to get in there and cover.
syria
has cut off media access. richard engle is monitoring this situation from libya. good evening.

>> reporter: good evening, brian. despite threats of a u.n. investigation and growing international condemnation, this crackdown in
syria
by
bashar assad
's regime shows no signs of letting up. the
syrian army
has mobilized to crush the biggest internal threat to the syrian regime in decades. witnesses say troops and tanks have fanned out in damascus, reenforcements have moved into dara, the center of the protests. these unverified images show armed men, apparently soldiers.
syria
remains closed off to most journalists. one syrian cameraman fled to neighboring jordan. the videos on his laptop show protesters tearing down images of the serious president and police beating protesters. via skype, we spoke to an activist in
syria
.

>>you can hear shooting, voices calling for help. no food, no water. because they targeted the water tanks. many
dead bodies
in the street, and the people cannot get them from the street because the shooting.

>> reporter: and in
syria
, past crackdowns still cast a long shadow. in
1982
, bashar's father violently put down a revolt by muslim activists in the city of homa. an estimated 10,000 to 40,000 people were killed. that crackdown by the
syrian president
's father was one of the deadliest acts of repression in the history of the modern
arab world
. there are fears now of a similar atrocity taking place, and that's why there's so much concern.